Reuters: Hot Stocks: UPDATE 1-Melrose profit jumps; energy order book weak

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UPDATE 1-Melrose profit jumps; energy order book weak Mar 6th 2013, 08:07 Wed Mar 6, 2013 3:07am EST * Full-year pretax profit rises 38 pct 214.3 million stg * Shares up nearly 7 pct (Adds details and share movement) March 6 (Reuters) - Engineering turnaround specialist Melrose Plc reported a 38 percent increase in full-year pretax profit but said the order book in its energy business remained weak. Melrose shares were up nearly 7 percent at 277.2 pence on the London Stock Exchange in early trading on Wednesday. The company, which follows a private equity-type model of investing in companies to improve their performance and then sell them, warned in November of a slowdown in its energy business. Melrose owns businesses that cater to the energy, oil and gas and mining industries, as well as manufacturing companies that serve the housing, construction and automotive sectors. Pretax profit rose to 214.3 million pounds ($324.0 million) in 2012 from 154.7 million pounds a year earlier. Revenue increased 43 percent to 1.55 billion pounds. Analysts on average had expected a pretax profit of 202.1 million pounds and revenue of 1.53 billion pounds according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose 7 percent, excluding the acquisition of Elster Group, which makes meters for the energy industry. Melrose said margins were rising faster than expected at Elster, which it bought in June. The company raised its final dividend to 5 pence per share from 4.8 pence a year earlier. ($1 = 0.66 British pounds) (Reporting by Karen Rebelo in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das) Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints

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